MELBOURNE, Australia -- Australian Open champion Jennifer Capriati broke a record that had stood for 113 years when she saved four match points before beating Martina Hingis in a memorable final.

Capriati's stirring 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2 victory for her second successive Melbourne crown and her third grand slam title in 12 months had tennis officials scouring their women's tennis record books.

In saving four match points against Hingis in the second set, Capriati staged the biggest comeback since Blanche Bingley Hillyard saved three on her way to beating Lena Rice 4-6, 8-6, 6-4 in an all-British Wimbledon final in 1889.

The last time a woman saved a match point in a grand slam tournament final was at the French Open in 1962, when Margaret Smith saved one in the third set on the way to beating fellow Australian Lesley Turner 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

Capriati became only the fourth player, man or woman, to fend off a match point and win the Australian Open.

Mary Carter saved one in beating Thelma Long in an all-Australian 1956 final 3-6, 6-2, 9-7.

Four years later, Rod Laver saved a match point while trailing 5-4 in the fourth set against Neale Fraser before winning in five sets.

Hingis led Capriati 6-4 and 4-0 but went on to lose in a match that immediately evoked memories of Jana Novotna's demise in the 1993 Wimbledon final against Germany's Steffi Graf.

"Later on, yes, I had match points, but at a set and 4-0 you shouldn't give it away any more," a rueful Hingis said.

"I wish I had the 4-0 lead again. I shouldn't let it slip away at that point ... you just can't let a player get back into the match, and that was a mistake I did," she said.

The 1993 Wimbledon final was tied at a set apiece but Czech Novotna led 4-1 in the third set.

Novotna never held a match point and lost five games in a row to hand Graf the deciding set 6-4.

The Czech player dissolved in tears in the arms of the Duchess of Kent at the presentation ceremony after one of the most famous "chokes" in recent tennis history.